Email chain subject line
RE: Ready for research: Please read: DNC Applauds VA Gov. McAuliffe on Rights Restoration

This email is folks making edits on a statement to be released - given the events of this spring, the irony is thick. Here's how the proposed release looks at this moment on April 25th:

Washington, D.C. -- Donna Brazile, the DNC’s Vice Chair of Voter Registration and Participation, issued the following statement praising Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s decision to restore voting rights for people with felony convictions:

“The Democratic Party applauds Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s decision to restore the voting rights of over 200,000 citizens. Terry and I first started working on voting rights together when he was the DNC Chair, and he helped established the Voting Rights Institute. Democrats across the nation believe the right to vote is our most fundamental right – it is the right that protects and preserves all of our other rights and freedoms. Democrats also know that we solve our nation’s problems with more democracy, not less.

“The contrast between our two national parties has never been more stark than on the issue of our democracy. Sadly, restricting access to the ballot box has become the political strategy for the Republican Party. We have witnessed Republican-led legislatures in Arizona, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin and elsewhere make it harder to vote by eliminating same-day registration, reducing early voting, eliminating polling locations, and imposing strict Photo ID laws. Democrats, however, are actively fighting to the expanding expand voter access in states like Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Vermont and everywhere in between. We are fighting in state houses to pass automatic registration, implement online voter registration, expand early voting and same-day registration. Democrats in Congress are working to restore the full strength of the Voting Rights Act.

“When long lines form or citizens are unable to overcome election burdens, Republicans blame the problem on ‘too many voters’ and celebrate those burdens as a key to their general election victory. Meanwhile, New York Democrats are holding people accountable and actively seeking answers. Because Republicans don’t hold themselves accountable for election failures, the Democratic National Committee and its partners are doing so for them by filing suit in Arizona to reverse the culture of discrimination and disenfranchisement.

“Today’s action is a reminder that elections matter. Our nation and our democracy are stronger and healthier when we elect Democrats up and down the ticket.”

Gist: Democrats want people to vote, Republicans don't. Nice statement. Until this year, I believed this was true about the parties.

Among the comments as the draft is circulating is this by Deshundra Jefferson for whom I cannot find a full title, but she's referenced as a spokesperson for the DNC:

The De Blasio reference is in regards to the Board of Elections suspensions. Pratt – are you comfortable striking this?

It isn't in the above statement, so presumably it was struck. Here it is (note that some editor has placed a bracket inside the paragraph):

“When long lines form or citizens are unable to overcome election burdens, Republicans blame the problem on ‘too many voters’ and celebrate those burdens as a key to their general election victory. Meanwhile, New York Democrats are holding people accountable and actively seeking answers. Meanwhile, Democrats like Mayor Bill De Blasio [there’s no context for De Blasio reference] are holding people accountable and actively seeking answers. Because Republicans don’t hold themselves accountable for election failures, the Democratic National Committee and its partners are doing so for them by filing suit in Arizona to reverse the culture of discrimination and disenfranchisement.

On the same day, Mayor Deblasio was quoted in the New York Times De Blasio Calls for Election Changes After Voting Problems

“The Board of Elections is an outdated organization in dire need of modernization — and we need to make these changes now,” Mr. de Blasio said in a statement.

“We cannot allow a single voter to be disenfranchised because of the Board of Elections’ outdated operations,” he said. “These common-sense reforms will bring much-needed transparency, modernize practices and help ensure we do not experience an Election Day like last week’s again.”

and

As part of the plan outlined by Mr. de Blasio, the board must agree to make the changes by June 1 before it is granted any additional funding. Once the agreement is signed, the plan calls for a consultant to review the April election and draw up a plan to correct systemic problems. The city would provide $1.5 million for this review and analysis.

Another $10 million would be spent on improving hiring practices, bolstering pay and enhancing training for poll workers. Finally, $8.5 million would be spent on other improvements, including greater voter outreach and more effective logistical operations.

In the related coverage list of articles appearing on the same page as the above article, it appears that the Times credits New York's Comptroller and Attorney General for pursuing what transpired in the recent primary vote where over a hundred thousand voters were purged from the Brooklyn rolls. From 4/19 (election day), Voting Problems Prompt Comptroller to Vow Audit of New York City’s Elections Board De Blasio is quoted:

“The perception that numerous voters may have been disenfranchised undermines the integrity of the entire electoral process and must be fixed,” the mayor said in a statement.

And from 4/20 New York Attorney General Opens Inquiry Into Primary Day Complaints. The Mayor is not mentioned.

Of course the big picture here is that there was massive disenfranchisement of New York Democrats the previous week, and they fail to discuss that in this statement they are writing on the same topic in another state. A good chunk of the 125,000 people who were purged from the rolls would really like their voter rights retroactively restored.

I can't find any mention of the mayor holding any particular person accountable - I'm glad he went as far as he did, but it hardly seems far enough. I imagine that the intention in quoting him in the first place was to prop him up as a Hillary surrogate. Here he was on MSDNC on election day supporting Clinton:

"The platform is what you hold us to."